GP sites due to start Covid vaccinations this week have been told their vaccine deliveries have been delayed, GPs have claimed.
Pulse also understands that sites are still waiting for logins for Pinnacle – the IT system which is to be used to record vaccinations under the enhanced service.
Dr Yvette Rean, a GP in Gillingham, Kent, said that ‘having spent weeks’ organising for vaccinations and ‘getting 975 patients booked in’, they ‘have been told they won’t be arriving on [Monday] as planned but [Tuesday] sometime’.
Due to the volatile nature of the Pfizer Covid vaccine, which needs to be stored and transported at -70C, GPs have just 3.5 days to administer all doses after receiving their delivery – leaving no margin for error.
‘I have 80 patients booked for Tuesday [morning],’ Dr Rean added.
Dr Gaurav Gupta, Kent LMC chair and a GP in Faversham, responded saying he was ‘also worried about the same’, having received a ‘confusing’ email from the CCG yesterday ‘saying we might be stood down’.
‘[We] have hundreds of patients booked for 18 [and] 19 [December],’ he added.
NHS England primary care director Dr Nikki Kanani responded via Twitter to say that both situations were ‘being picked up’.
The problem did not appear to only apply to Kent, with Merseyside GP Dr Simon Tobin stating their delivery of Covid vaccine ‘has been delayed 24 hours’.
Dr Rean, who is a single-handed GP, added that it had taken he practice receptionists ‘seven hours’ to book in the patients that were due to be vaccinated tomorrow – which would have to be repeated if the vaccine delivery was delayed.
The news comes as the number of GP sites that were due to begin vaccinations early this week has plummeted from an expected 280 to just over 100 – with NHS England declining to provide an explanation.
Pulse has asked NHS England for comment.
More to follow…
READERS' COMMENTS [5]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
Unfortunately entirely predictable – NHSE supply chains throughout pandemic haven’t inspired much confidence. Rushed, politicised, and underfunded as usual.
We need an explanation why all cancelled at last minute. It feels Like NHSE don’t want to be honest as to the reasons why but happy to leave us to take the blame
We also need compensation for all the wasted hours
Cone on. BMA get into gear on our behalf on this one please
Ominous next 3 months.
dr kannani – “Both of your situations being picked up”
it’s lucky for you i live in locumland, in wales.
if you did that to me, after i’d moved heaven and earth to get a load of patients in to be jabbed, i would be turning down this work and telling you to do it yourself.
i appreciate it is not your personal doing, but you obviously have the ear of the powers that be – unlike our multiple voices which are continually ignored.
if you – with all your apparent influence – were to point out to the politicos who are running the show, that their programme has stumbled to a halt because of their lack of organisation, or political will to ensure it happens, then we might get a proper programme going.
i, for one, will not be holding my breath.
RANT OVER !
I am sorry Nikita
Stick to my judgement on NHS England last 9 months :
NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE , full stop